Lost Liverpool

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Since publishing the story of Peter Roughley last year, a number of people have contacted me with comments, some have expressed how interesting the story is, others have shed a tear as it touched their hearts. Another person, Anthony, contacted me with newspaper clippings from the Liverpool Express telling initially of Peters award and sadly a few months later, a report of his death.

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Fazakerley People

In the course of my research into local history and as a result of my interest in genealogy, I have come across a few snippets which interested me but don't fit in the main story.

Searching the census gives a picture of the social development of the area. The early census documents show that Fazakerley was mainly a farming community with a few large houses but as the railway system allowed greater social mobility, commuters moved out of the busy city to the luxury of newly built houses within a rural setting.

One such person was a gentleman named Charles Octavius Bremner who is recorded on the 1881 and 1891 census as living at 9 Higher Lane. He lived with his wife Anna Amery Wedgewood who was born in Rock Ferry and one servant. By 1891 the couple had 3 children Barbara, Evelyn and Henry. Charles worked as a Sergeant at Mace at the "Chief Circle of the Court of Passage" Love to Know describes the Court of Passage as a very ancient institution which sits five times a year to try civil cases.

Charles came from a large family, in 1871 he lived in Northumberland Terrace with his father Henry, an attorney, his mother May, 10 siblings and 4 servants. At least one of his brothers was a barrister.

Charles and his family moved to Wellington Rd in Oxton by 1901. It is unclear at what time during the previous decade they moved to the Wirral. Maybe they did not relish the idea of living near an isolation hospital.

Fire at City Hospital

The British Journal of Nursing printed the following report on 29th April 1911

"As usual, when a fire occurs in a hospital, the nursing staff showed presence of mind and promptitude at the City Hospital for Infectious Disease, Fazakerley, Liverpool, last week. The gale dislodged a chimney pot from the roof of a block in the isolation quarter, and some burning soot set fire to the wood-work in the roof. The nurse in charge rushed out to raise the alarm, and when she returned she found the ceiling ablaze. There were 13 children suffering from measles and whooping cough in the wards, and attention was first given to them. Doctors and nurses hurried to the rescue, and beneath a roof of flame the little patients were carefully wrapped in blankets and transferred to other wards with disciplined coolness. The City Fire Brigade concentrated their efforts on preventing the flames from spreading to the other wooden-built blocks close by, and in this they were successful, for the fire was confined to the one building which was entirely gutted"